Page 97 of Saving Graces
“You’re in charge of the playlist,” Kinsey told her.
They turned onto the highway. Cassidy seemed intrigued by the randomness of their afternoon and ridiculously easy going about her sudden kidnapping, her big blue eyes sparkling with adventure. Kinsey watched her out of the corner of her eye as she drove. They both sang along to the tracks she chose, or sometimes fell into conversation, about their deal, about the record they were about to make, about their dreams and plans and ideas. Their future together.
When the highway signs started to declare Nashville, Cassidy gave her a concerned look.
“What exactly the fuck are we doing?” she asked.
“You said you trusted me,” Kinsey shrugged. When the GPS said they were minutes away they were still somewhere in the green belt outside of Nashville. She began to get a little nervous. She could only hope that what she’d decided was right.
She turned off the road and parked in a little patch of trees. It was almost four in the afternoon, the spring sunshine bright. Cassidy looked at her, confused. Kinsey undid her seatbelt and turned to face her.
“Here’s the thing,” she said. “I fucking love you.” Cassidy drew in a short breath. “Like, a lot, okay?” she added. “You’re my best friend, and my bandmate and my music partner and like… you’re kind of everything. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“I love you too,” said Cassidy, her voice low, her cheeks slightly pink.
For one whole second Kinsey hesitated. Then she nodded.
“So I got you a thing,” she said. “Through there.” She nodded at the gap in the trees. Cassidy looked up and frowned a little. “Take your bag and go ahead,” she told her. “I’ll be there in a second.”
Cassidy looked at her, her face unreadable. Kinsey shrugged and pointed ahead. Cassidy cocked her head, but she got out of the car. She grabbed her overnight bag and slung it over her shoulder. Kinsey watched as she disappeared into the trees. She started to wait.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cassidy left the car and walked toward the gap in the trees. Her heart started to pound. She’d been disoriented, having driven all the damn way from Kentucky to get here. She’d only been here once before, at night, and it wasn’t until she walked through the trees and out into the light that she knew for sure where she was.
How the hell did Kinsey know about this place? Cassidy didn’t remember telling her about it, but then again, the two of them had talked all day and night for months, drunk, sober, exhausted, excited. At this point, she’d probably told her everything. She thought of Kinsey’s eyes in the car, telling her she loved her. And then this? Was she trying to recreate something? Cassidy was incredibly bewildered. She wasn’t sure what she wanted or what to expect.
A year later and she still didn’t know what the tall metal structure in the middle of the wheatfield was for, but she walked towards it like a sailor to a siren. What was at the top? A white tent shaped thing? She adjusted the overnight bag on her shoulder. Were they camping here? Her heart in her throat, Cassidy reached the tower, grabbing hold of the metal ladder. Muscle memory kicked in as she climbed, a thousand glimpses of that one life changing night flashing through her head.
When she reached the top, she dropped her bag, and turned.
Her heart seized.
There, standing before her, was Lane.
They were heartbreakingly handsome, in the lazily hot tux she remembered from their accidental almost-date, back before they’d ever really considered each other. Their hair was neatly swooshed, their beautiful caramel eyes intensely soft as they gazed at her. Their chest rose and fell rapidly beneath their jacket, the only sign that they weren’t one thousand percent confident right now.
Cassidy froze. This was what Kinsey had brought her here for?
“Hey,” Lane said casually, like they’d seen each other only yesterday, like she’d dropped by the guesthouse to see them before dinner. Her heart fractured at the sound of their voice.
“Hey,” she managed.
“Kinsey’s still in the car park,” they said, seriously. “You’re not, like, trapped here, just in case you’re worried.”
“Um, okay?”
“She’s supposed to leave after an hour, hoping you want to hear me out. You know, best case scenario. But she also made me promise to tell you that her phone is on and she’ll be back in five seconds to pick you up if you want.”
“Right,” Cassidy said, slowly, mind whirring with a thousand thoughts. “What… is happening?”
Behind Lane there really was a tent, a picnic blanket at the entrance, a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a whole damn field’s worth of fresh flowers.
“How did you get all this up here?”
“Oh,” Lane said. “Burt helped me.” Cassidy blinked, imagining Savannah’s burly driver hauling flowers up the ladder. “He loved every second of it, by the way.”
Cassidy found herself smiling, just for a second. Lane smiled too. Then their face crumpled.
